They finally have the prospect depth to be able to trade a draft pick for a viable piece at the trade deadline. Granted, that's 4 months away, but the important thing is that they should be in that position.

I like both Mason and Garon pushing each other. It starts from the net and with Rick Nash. Both parts of the team are playing extremely well, therefore, so is the team.

A God Damn dead man would understand that if a minor league bus in any city took a real sharp right turn, a Zack McCalister would likely fall out. - Lead Pipe

Love child of shawn kemp wrote:Yeah, the best goalie in hockey is our second stringer. Sounds like a QB debate.

The best goalie in hockey this season has been Tim Thomas. Not Mathieu Garon. Thomas is 10-1-1 1.49, .954, and 4 shutouts. He's also 7-0 on the road. His loss was a 2-0 loss to Ottawa.

Not taking anything away from Garon. If he had played 12 games instead of 7, I doubt very much that his stats are as good as they are. But, as I said in my post, Garon's pushing Mason to be better and it's making the Jackets better.

A God Damn dead man would understand that if a minor league bus in any city took a real sharp right turn, a Zack McCalister would likely fall out. - Lead Pipe

Darth Vader got owned last night. Great to see my Jackets showing up to play night in and night out. Arniel has molded this team into something completely different from years past. I am a hockey fan first so Columbus doing this well is an early X-mas gift. What I feel is the most impressive is the the 7-1-0 away record. You win on the road, you make the playoffs. Lets hope this offenese/transition game continue to develop. Our 2nd lines need to produce more, but Vermy and Filly are creating chances. Just a matter of time............

"All Beckett needs to do to cap off this mess is order some fried chicken and beer" – 5/10/12 before Beckett got chased in the 3rd at Fenway.

Jakub Voracek is becoming my favorite athlete to watch. He may not be great yet, but he has "it". The dude hustles for every minute he's on the ice and he made a sick pass the Nasher last night. They are just leaving it all on the ice on the defense, there's a toughness this team lacked last year. Mason/Garon have confidence in the D and you can see it in their play.

And yes, once that Vermette/Filatove lines gets going this could be a dangerous team.

Been trying to watch the Jackets a lot more this season. Have caught parts of 4-5 games. Have Nash, Mason, and Vermette (disappointment so far) on my fantasy hockey team.

Excited to see em playing well. Get more excited for their bigger games than games like tonights Cavs/Pacers game. Looking forward to watching more of them throughout the winter. Hopefully that can keep this up. Division is a meat grinder.

"It's like dating a woman who hates you so much she will never break up with you, even if you burn down the house every single autumn." ~ Chuck Klosterman on Browns fans relationship with the Browns

Cerebral_DownTime wrote:And yes, once that Vermette/Filatove lines gets going this could be a dangerous team.

They need a veteran, hard-nosed winger for that line willing to go in the places where you get your ass kicked to score a goal. Somebody with some serious grit. A Matt Cooke kind of player.

Not going to find one of those now, though. Too much parity league-wide.

But those guys are acquirable at the deadline. Gotta get there in this position and then make the right move.

The only potential pitfall of a move like that is R.J. getting relegated to the third line. Not saying that is a bad thing, but this team has enough production/chances up and down each 4 lines. Arniel is already going to have "trouble" getting Juice and Moreau back in the line-up and I am eager to see what he does.

We are almost too "skilled" at the wing position to even make that kind of move when this team is healthy. Don't confuse skill with good because I mean that in a finesse/grit kind of way. If Juice is on the 2nd line, I'd actually like to see our 2nd and 3rd lines look like this:

Juice-Pahlsson-FilatovUmberger-Vermette-Clark/Moreau.

That alloys Arniel to roll 4 lines every night with a LOT of play between how that 3rd line looks. You can always put Wilson on the third and move Clark down with the energy line of Dorsett-McKenzie/Murray. Ahh such a relief to have a coach who has gotten these Jackets to buy into his system and its paying off. Amazing the same team we had last year looks so different this year and that Arniel's style has created a depth problem. CBJ never had that in the past 9 years!

"All Beckett needs to do to cap off this mess is order some fried chicken and beer" – 5/10/12 before Beckett got chased in the 3rd at Fenway.

RickNashEquilibrium wrote:The only potential pitfall of a move like that is R.J. getting relegated to the third line. Not saying that is a bad thing, but this team has enough production/chances up and down each 4 lines. Arniel is already going to have "trouble" getting Juice and Moreau back in the line-up and I am eager to see what he does.

Adds a scoring punch to your third line. I have no problem with it. A guy like Moreau makes sense on that 2nd line if he can handle the ice time. He'll be a responsible defender on the weak side winger when Filatov gets caught in the zone and lags ass getting back.

I like Umberger, he's just not a big enough body on that line. They could really use a Tomas Holmstrom type player.

We are almost too "skilled" at the wing position to even make that kind of move when this team is healthy. Don't confuse skill with good because I mean that in a finesse/grit kind of way. If Juice is on the 2nd line, I'd actually like to see our 2nd and 3rd lines look like this:

Juice-Pahlsson-FilatovUmberger-Vermette-Clark/Moreau.

Huselius needs to be traded. The team's playing terrifically without him because of his turnovers and lack of finishing ability. You notice how Nash is playing significantly better without Juice on his wing. Huselius drags down every line he plays on.

Your idea isn't bad, except for the fact that Pahlsson negates Filatov's offensive ability and then Juice and Filatov on the same line is a recipe for odd-man rushes. What would be a better option is moving Filatov to the opposite wing, to play the off-wing like most speedy Russians prefer anyway, and then have Vermette and Clark finish off the line. Guys like Filatov need playmaking centers, not playmaking wingers. Then you've got Umberger-Pahlsson-Moreau as a shutdown line with a little offensive upside. Clark will get to the net and get to those hard-nosed areas to pick up the garbage goals. He's also a leader and will keep Filatov in line.

That alloys Arniel to roll 4 lines every night with a LOT of play between how that 3rd line looks. You can always put Wilson on the third and move Clark down with the energy line of Dorsett-McKenzie/Murray. Ahh such a relief to have a coach who has gotten these Jackets to buy into his system and its paying off. Amazing the same team we had last year looks so different this year and that Arniel's style has created a depth problem. CBJ never had that in the past 9 years!

Rolling four lines is outstanding. It keeps you fresh, especially with the Jackets in a stretch of 16 games in 28 days. The reason that the team is playing so well under Arniel is that they're being taught to play in all three zones. Hitchcock was only worried about two zones, the defensive and the neutral. Arniel welcomes creativity, Hitchcock denounced it in favor of defensive responsibility. The Jackets were never built for Hitchcock's system.

The Jackets are still a hard nosed (more talented than Clark/Moreau) winger and a puck-moving defenseman away from a chance at a deep playoff run, IMO. Steve Bernier comes to mind for the former, if Florida would move him. And I'm sure they would.

A God Damn dead man would understand that if a minor league bus in any city took a real sharp right turn, a Zack McCalister would likely fall out. - Lead Pipe

skatingtripods wrote:The Jackets are still a hard nosed (more talented than Clark/Moreau) winger and a puck-moving defenseman away from a chance at a deep playoff run, IMO. Steve Bernier comes to mind for the former, if Florida would move him. And I'm sure they would.

Deadline trades for Jamie Langenbrunner and Bryan McCabe/Sergei Gonchar. That would probably never happen but one can wish. I don't care how bad Gonchar's +/- is right now, I'd take him in a heartbeat.

"All Beckett needs to do to cap off this mess is order some fried chicken and beer" – 5/10/12 before Beckett got chased in the 3rd at Fenway.

I will know the Jackets are contenders when I start seeing their games on "Today's Slate" on the front page of TCF.

Speaking of OHL, to me it always made more sense for Cleveland to have a OHL team instead of a AHL team. There could be natural cross lake rivalries with Erie PA, London Ontario, and Plymouth, MI.Most importantly we would not have to worry about our best players leaving during the middle of year. And if you have ever been to a OHL game , you would see the atmosphere for those games is intense. The OHL is like Canada's version of NCAA Football.

Last edited by Govbarney on Thu Nov 25, 2010 12:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

"I don't think they're building chemical weapons in Berea. But they might be. I can't say for sure."Chuck Klosterman

You've probably heard those from me. Guy pisses me off to no end. Immense talent, a big body. Just never wanted to use it. Something clicked on him in the Olympics last year. He was impossible to move off the puck in Vancouver and he's continued it through.

Big time for the captain to show up.

A God Damn dead man would understand that if a minor league bus in any city took a real sharp right turn, a Zack McCalister would likely fall out. - Lead Pipe

Excellent comeback from the early 2-0 hole. Umberger and Calvert have been all over the ice. Calvert - this kid can play. He has all the intangibles to make up for his lack of size. Just makes things happen.

Jacket power play has been outstanding these last few weeks.

Finish this thing off tonight.

"It's like dating a woman who hates you so much she will never break up with you, even if you burn down the house every single autumn." ~ Chuck Klosterman on Browns fans relationship with the Browns

That was awesome tonight. Looked ugly early. Then the storm back. Hat trick for Calvert. Six goals in the last five games for the rookie. He just turned 21 years old.

Team is rolling offensively right now. Without Brassard. Just totally abused Rinne and Brysgalov, two of the leagues best goalies this year.

68 points. In addition to being right on the cusp of the playoffs, they're just 4 points behind the current #5 seeded Kings. They're right there. With Mason rolling and this team putting the puck in the net, they're in a real good spot right now.

"It's like dating a woman who hates you so much she will never break up with you, even if you burn down the house every single autumn." ~ Chuck Klosterman on Browns fans relationship with the Browns